Newcomer of the Year Award!
Every year, new students and new committee members make a huge impact in their clubs on and off the field. This award category recognises the amazing and transformational influence that those individuals have within Cambridge Sport.
The nominations for this category were brilliant, and all four shortlisted individuals have come in and made an incredible impression on those around them.
Cosmo Calesini, Downing, CU Taekwondo Club
Cosmo joined the Club this academic year as a fresher and has immediately made his mark on the Club in all regards and will do into the future. He has already brought sporting success to the Club bringing home two gold medals at BUCS and contributing to the Club’s historic first Varsity victory since 2008!
Furthermore, he has truly made himself known to all members of the Club as a constant friendly face, lively personality, and excellent room for holding unprompted group dance sessions. The Club is seeing many members graduating this year and many new people on Committee and Cosmo has stepped up and into the role of President as a newcomer and is doing an excellent job filling the very big shoes that our last President left. In his short time he has already given a lot to the Club and will continue to do so into the future
Esme McCarthy, Lucy Cavendish, CU Amateur Boxing Club
Esmé joined the Club this year and she has never boxed before. Despite this, she was definitely the most hard working athlete on the squad and surprisingly, having only had 4 months of training she brought home a silver medal for us at BUCS, in the Varsity match she beat her opponent who won the Gold Medal at BUCS and was undefeated before boxing Esmé.
I must emphasise as many may not be aware that the boxing BUCS is exceptionally different to BUCS in other sports. Most competitors trained at proper amateur boxing gyms and started boxing at a very young age.
Esmé’s achievements are remarkable and should be recognised by the sport’s awards.
Lauren Airey, Emmanual, CU Modern Pentathlon Club
Lauren joined CUMPC this year after recovering from a broken back. Getting back into training after such a serious injury was always going to be a challenge, but Lauren took it in her stride.
She has been a role model athlete with her attendance record at training, and impressive results at national pentathlon competitions at Varsity, placing 14th at National Rankings and 1st place at Varsity against other international level athletes.
She regularly attended all the training sessions, welcoming and encouraging new members to take up pentathlon. In her first year at CUMPC Lauren boldly took on the role of Women’s Captain demonstrating great organisational skills through sending the weekly email and organising training sessions. Lauren really got to know everyone in the club on a personal level, creating a very friendly atmosphere at training. She was always smiling and encouraging everyone to try their best. Lauren showed great resilience coming back from injury and learning the new modern pentathlon discipline of obstacle course racing. She put in a very strong performance at Varsity winning the Ladies' Individual Competition and achieving a Full Blue score! She captained the Women’s Blues team to an exceptional victory over O*ford and won the trophy for the fastest obstacle course time.
Lauren has played a huge part in the success of CUMPC this year and she really deserves this nomination after all her hard work and amazing results.
Prithvi Singh. St Edmund’s, CU Squash Rackets Club
Prithvi is a truly remarkable character. He perfectly embodies the values of CUSRC, from his selflessness to his sporting excellence. Despite his exceptional ability to play squash, he frequently dedicates himself to the improvement of all members of the club. To top it all off, he is extremely cheery, and undoubtedly a man of the people.
As a previous U19 India National Champion, it is no surprise that Prithvi is the top seed for the Men’s Blues team. His commitment to BUCS matches have undoubtedly helped the Men’s 1st team to secure a BUCS league win and subsequent promotion. At Varsity he ‘triple-bagelled’ Oxford’s top seed, winning 9-0, 9-0, 9-0.
What’s particularly impressive about Prithvi, however, is his commitment to helping others. He is always keen to play with and coach individual members of the club, at their request, irrespective of if they’re at the top or the bottom of the ranking in the squad. His advice is always given in a down-to-earth manner, never seeming pretentious but rather encouraging and uplifting. On a couple of occasions he turned up to a Women’s 2nd team training session to help out with coaching; many players described it as “one of the most useful training sessions ever”. To top it off, despite being injured and unable to play in the BUCS Squash Individual Championships, Prithvi still came with the rest of the squash team (for all three days of the tournament!) just to support and coach our players during their matches.
Sophie Moore, St John’s, CU Swimming and Water Polo Club
Sophie has made an amazing entrance as a fresher, breaking 12 records in the club and absolutely carrying the team at Varsity.
Every race she swam at BUCS she qualified into all the A finals, as well as reaching the finals in aquatics GB Champs.
Sophie really is an inspiration on the team, not only is it a pleasure to watch her swim but she’s also so positive to be around and is a truly great teammate. 12 club records in one year is insane, and i look forward to watching her achieve more next year.
